ENGLISH – II

INTONATION AND MELODY OF

ENGLISH

A. Vennila
II Year B.A. LLB
‘B’ Section
Register No. : 52300809
GOVERNMENT LAW COLLEGE TIRUNELVELI.
SYNOPSIS:

SI. NO. TITLE PAGE NO.

1. INTRODUCTION 3

2. INTONATION 3

3. IMPORTANCE OF INTONATION 4

4. TYPES OF INTONATION 4-8

5. CONCLUSION 8

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INTONATION AND MELODY OF ENGLISH

INTRODUCTION:

Intonation means using a tone while speaking. The use of proper tone in a
particular context is of vital importance in our day to day communication.

It is the intonation that holds the key to the speakers attitude and mind. If
a proper tone is not used in a particular context, it is possible that the listener
may misunderstand or get irritated or get angry with the speaker. Therefore we
should familiar with a few basic and elementary tonal patterns and use them in
our day to day speech.

INTONATION:

When we speak or read aloud, the pitch of the voice goes on changing or
varying. The degree of variation of sound is called the ‘pitch’. Sometimes the
pitch rises, sometimes it falls and at other times it remains level, high or low.
The pattern of variation of the pitch of the voice constitute the intonation.

Intonation is the pattern of pitch on word groups which give importance

about the speaker’s feelings. It is an important feature to indicate the type of
utterance and the attitude of the speaker. At times intonation conveys some
information that one cannot find in the words employed by the speaker. The
intonation depends on the tone of the speaker.

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IMPORTANCE OF INTONATION:

1) Intonation is very important in communication as it gives information

beyond just the basic meaning of the words.
2) It can express the speaker’s attitude or feeling about something, as
well as giving grammatical information (such as distinguishing
between a statement and a question).

For example: "You’re seeing the doctor tomorrow."

3) Even within a question, intonation can indicate if the speaker is

confirming information or seeking additional information.

TYPES OF INTONATION:

There are several common intonation patterns in English. Understanding

these patterns can help to express yourself more clearly and connect with your
other people. That’s because they add depth, emphasis, and emotion to our
conversations. There are four main types of Intonation. They are:

1) Falling Tone.
2) Rising Tone.
3) Rising-Falling Intonation.
4) Falling-Rising Intonation.

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Falling Tone (↘):

When we use the falling tone, our pitch starts at a higher level and comes
down to a lower level. We normally use the falling tone in:

a) Statements;
b) Questions beginning with interrogative words like what, who, whom,
where, when, which, how, etc., if these are asked by the speaker in a
neutral way, without showing any feeling or concern;
c) Exclamatory sentences; and
d) Orders or commands.

[ The Falling Tone is denoted by (↘) ]

Example:
a) Statements:
i) My Name is (↘)Nila.
ii) Vijay is fond of (↘)music.
b) Wh – Questions:
i) What is your (↘)Name?
ii) When is your (↘)Birthday?
c) Exclamations:
i) What a beautiful (↘)building!
ii) What a tall (↘)tree!
d) Orders/Commands:
i) Shut the (↘)door.
ii) Go and post this (↘)letter.

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Rising Tone (↗):

When we use a rising tone, our pitch starts at a lower level and then goes
up to a lower level and then goes up to a higher level. In English we normally
use the rising tone in

a) Yes/No Questions;
b) Incomplete utterances; and
c) Polite requests.

[ The Rising Tone is denoted by (↗) ]

Example:

a) Yes/No Questions:
i) Is Mother at (↗)home?
ii) Can you buy me an (↗)Icecream?
b) Incomplete utterances:
i) If you go to (↗)Delhi, please meet my aunt.
ii) If it rains (↗)tomorrow, the program will be cancel.
c) Polite requests:
i) Pass the (↗)salt.
ii) Close that (↗)window.

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Rising Falling Intonation:

In many sentences and phrases, you should combine rising and falling
intonation. Rising-falling intonation is when the pitch rises and then falls within
a sentence or phrase. We normally use rising-falling intonation in:

a) Choices;
b) Making list; and
c) Conditional sentence.

Examples:

a) Choices:
i) Do you like (↗)Coffee or (↘)Tea?
ii) Should we (↗)go out or (↘)stay in?
b) Making list:
i) Mother asked to buy (↗)egg, (↗)flour and (↘)sugar.
ii) I need (↗)pen, (↗)pencil, (↗)scale and (↘)other Stationery
items.
c) Conditional sentences:
i) It’s a lot of (↗)money, but it’s (↘)worth it.
ii) If it rains (↗)tomorrow, we will stay at (↘)home.

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Falling Rising Intonation:

Falling-rising intonation is used when the pitch falls and then raises, this
usually happens within one word. We use falling rising intonation when:

a) The speaker isn’t certain of the answer they’re giving, or perhaps

they don’t want to answer at all.

Example:

What were you doing on Saturday at 8 pm? I don’t (↘)re (↗)member.

b) Politeness and uncertainty when asking a question.

Example:

Do you think it would be (↘)O (↗)K.

CONCLUSION:
Intonation plays a vital role in spoken language, influencing
communication effectiveness, emotional expression, and relationship-building.
Understanding intonation’s complexities and nuances is essential for language
learners, educators, and communication professionals.

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REFERENCE:

1) English-II - Dr. S.R. Myneni

2) https://opentext.ku.edu/amenglishpronounciation/chapter/intonation-
the-melody-of-english/
3) https://www.busuu.com/en/english/english-intonation

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SYNOPSIS:

SI. NO. TITLE PAGE NO.

1. INTRODUCTION 11
2. PHONETICS 11
3. CONSONANTS SOUNDS IN ENGLISH 12
4. ARTICULATION OF CONSONANTS 12-15
5. EXAMPLES FOR CONSONANTS 16
6. CONCLUSION 17

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ARTICULATION OF CONSONANTS

INTRODUCTION:

Phonetics is defined as the branch of linguistics that studies the

production and classification of human sounds. Phonetics describes these
sounds using the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). The
IPA uses a single symbol to describe each sound in a language. If a letter in a
word is silent, there will be no IPA symbol used in transcriptions. The IPA can
be helpful for studying a language, especially languages that use letters that are
silent or have multiple pronunciations. Languages like Arabic and Spanish are
consistent in their spelling and pronunciation – each letter represents a single
sound which rarely varies. English is different. It has many letters with two or
more sounds and many letters that are silent.

PHONETICS:

Phonetics is the study of the production and perception of speech sounds.

IT is concerned with the sounds of language, how these sounds are articulated
and how the hearer perceives them. Phonetics is related to the science of
acoustics does. There are three sub-disciplines of phonetics:

1. Articulatory Phonetics: the production of speech sounds.

2. Acoustic Phonetics: the study of the physical production and
transmission of speech sounds.
3. Auditory Phonetics: the study of the perception of speech
sounds.

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CONSONANTS SOUNDS IN ENGLISH:

Like vowels, consonants can also be better perceived by learning their

sounds. A consonant sound is a speech sound that is produced by the partial or
complete obstruction of air by the lips, teeth, tongue or throat. There are 44
speech sounds in total in the English language. Among them, 24 are consonant
sounds.

ARTICULATION OF CONSONANTS:

Producing a consonant involves making the vocal tract narrower at some

location than it usually is. We call this narrowing a constriction. Which
consonant you’re pronouncing depends on where in the vocal tract the
constriction is and how narrow it is. It also depends on a few other things, such
as whether the vocal folds are vibrating and whether air is flowing through the
nose.

We classify consonants along three major dimensions:

1) Voicing.
2) Place of Articulation.
3) Manner of Articulation.

The voicing parameter specifies whether the vocal folds are vibrating.
The place of articulation dimension specifies where in the vocal tract the
constriction is. The manner of articulation dimension is essentially everything
else: how narrow the constriction is whether air is flowing through the nose,
whether the tongue is dropped down on one side.

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Voicing:

The vocal folds may be held against each other at just the right tension so
that the air flowing past them from the lungs will cause them to vibrate against
each other. We call this process voicing. Sounds which are made with vocal
fold vibration are said to be voiced. Sounds made without vocal fold vibration
are said to be voiceless.

There are several pairs of sounds in English which differ only in voicing
– that is, the two sounds have identical places and manners of articulation, but
one has vocal fold vibration and the other doesn’t. The /θ/ of thigh and the /ð/
of thy are one such pair. The others are:

Voiceless Voiced

/p/ /b/

/t/ /d/

/k/ /g/

/f/ /v/

/θ/ /ð/

/s/ /z/

/ʃ/ /Ʒ/

/ʧ/ /ʤ/

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The other sounds of English do not come in voiced/voiceless pairs. /h/ is
voiceless, and has no voiced counterpart. The other English consonants are all
voiced: /r/, /l/, /w/, /j/, /m/, /n/ and / ŋ/.

Place of articulation:

The place of articulation (POA) of a consonant specifies where in the

vocal tract the narrowing occurs. From front to back, the POAs that English
uses are:

1) Bilabial – the upper lip and lower lip come in complete contact with each
other. [p b m w]
2) Dental – the tip of the tongue touches the teeth mildly. [θ ð]
3) Labio-dental – the lower lip and the upper teeth come in contact with
each other. [f v]
4) Palatal – the body of the tongue touches the hard palate. [Ʒ j ʃ]
5) Alveolar – the tip or blade of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge.
[s z t d l r]
6) Palate-alveolar – the blade/tip of the tongue touches the alveolar ridge,
and the body of the tongue approaches the hard palate. [ʧ ʤ]
7) Velar – the body of the tongue comes in contact with the soft palate
(also called velum) [k g]
8) Glottal – the vocal cords come into contact and produce friction. [h]
9) Nasals – the sounds made by directing air through the nose. [m n ŋ]

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Manner of articulation:

The manner of articulation is the configuration and interaction of the

articulators (speech organs such as the tongue, lips and palate) when making a
speech sound. One parameter of manner is stricture, that is, how closely the
speech organs approach one another.

1) Frictionless continuant – a sound produced with a stricture of open

approximation so that the air passes through the oral cavity without any
audible friction. [r]
2) Plosive – a sound produced by the air being blocked inside the vocal
tract followed by the release of air from the mouth. [p b t d k g]
3) Fricative – a sound produced by positioning the mouth in a particular
manner so as to partially block the air coming out of the mouth.
[f v θ ð s z ʃ Ʒ h]
4) Affricate – a combination of a plosive and fricative manner, in which
sound is produced by the blocking of air and finally realizing it through a
partial passage. [ʧ ʤ]
5) Nasal – a sound produced when the air passes and escapes through the
nose. [m n ŋ]
6) Lateral – a sound produced by the air escaping from the mouth and
sides of the tongue. [l]
7) Approximant – a sound produced when the tip of the tongue slightly
touches the alveolar ridge, and the air escapes through the gap between
the tongue and the alveolar ridge. [w j]

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EXAMPLES FOR CONSONANTS:

1) /p/- pin, puppy, paper

2) /b/- bat, book, best
3) /t/ - ten, tap, tea
4) /d/ - dog, dream, feed
5) /k/ - kite, back, quick
6) /g/ - goat, game, bag
7) /ʧ/ - change, cheese, watch
8) /ʤ/ - judge, joy, badge
9) /f/ - fan, family, friend
10) /v/ - van, value, village
11) /θ/ - thick, thief, think
12) /ð/ - father, leather, rather
13) /s/ - sink, false, school
14) /z/ - zinc, zoo, falls
15) /ʃ/ - fish, shake, shore
16) /Ʒ/ - leisure, treasure, vision
17) /h/ - head, behind, hair
18) /m/ - mat, common, comb
19) /n/ - sun, know, line
20) / ŋ/ - sing, finger, long
21) /l/ - feel, light, list
22) /j/ - young, youth, use
23) /w/ - wall, which, wood
24) /r/ - run, reach, road

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CONCLUSION:

Consonants form the backbone of phonological systems, distinguishing

languages and shaping linguistic identities. Their intricate articulations and
patterning create a rich tapestry of sound, facilitating communication and
expression.

REFERENCE:

1) https://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~krussll/phonetics/articulation/
describing-consonants.html
2) https://byjus.com/english/consonants/

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